Incidentally, for those of you that live in the U.S., and said, "I'm lucky I don't live in the U.K." (or words to that effect), allow me to remind you of the Patriot Act, a law that is systematically stripping us of our Constitutionally protected Bill of Rights. Also, allow me to re-introduce you to the Department of Homeland Security, the defacto secret police of the United States. Shall I also remind you of the NSA? A federal government agency that spies on Americans - illegally. It was illegal until 2013 or 2014, when Americans cried foul. Obama fixed the problem by working with Congress to make it legal. Now the NSA can spy on Americans legally. Thanks, Obama, for listening to Americans' concerns, and protecting them from an abusive system.

except, criminals already know how to cover their own tracks through vpns, encrypted messaging apps, etc, etc.
really, this bill does nothing to stop criminals while sacrificing all online privacy for britons.

SethSnyder
Wow, "mostly men" I have no words. In my experience, it I would have thought it was mostly women, nice to know people still assume.

I assume that you're talking about this paragraph in the article?

'It's a Sunday afternoon in Tokyo and Sunshine Creation is in full swing. Thousands of manga fans, mostly men, crowd into an exhibition centre, poring over manga comic magazines laid out for sale on trestle tables snaking around the rooms.'

If so, that's not an assumption of the person who wrote the article, it's an observation they made of the event that they were at in Japan, which is called Sunshine Creation.

SethSnyder
Wow, "mostly men" I have no words. In my experience, it I would have thought it was mostly women, nice to know people still assume.

I assume that you're talking about this paragraph in the article?

'It's a Sunday afternoon in Tokyo and Sunshine Creation is in full swing. Thousands of manga fans, mostly men, crowd into an exhibition centre, poring over manga comic magazines laid out for sale on trestle tables snaking around the rooms.'

If so, that's not an assumption of the person who wrote the article, it's an observation they made of the event that they were at in Japan, which is called Sunshine Creation.

Yeah, my bad, admittedly it was late when I read it, so i just skimmed through :p

It's not like they're going to look at your entire internet history. They have MUCH better things to do with their time.

I don't think an automated program parsing browsing data en mass, which is how this data will really be handled, has something better to do with its time. It's not just anime and hentai, both of which are fringe hobbies with a bad rap, it is other things like political affiliation, opinions on recreation drug use, and so on that the authorities might start keeping track of. These are things government agencies really have no reason or business knowing. It also becomes easier to crack down on lesser crimes to look like you are "tough on crime".

I am sure its to crack down on cyber crime and hardcore criminals. I doubt they care about otaku's and their kinky search history.

Why are you certain of that? It has already been pointed out to that anime and hentai have a terrible reputation in the media making it low-hanging fruit. Claiming that someone is a sexual deviant--no matter how spurious the claim--makes them sound like a hardcore criminal. As I mentioned above, data like the browsing history of every citizen will be parsed by automated programs and scripts. No one has to take a personal interest in you for it to matter. If all they needed this kind of information for was serious stuff, it could be handled by intelligence agencies without a bill like this being passed. And have the seen the ridiculous list of organizations that will have access to the data? It may eventually become standard procedure for police to look at your internet history and see everything you have been doing if they ever have to question you. You may think that you have nothing to hide, but nothing good can come from so many people and agencies having access to this data.

In an ever more connected age, loss of privacy like this is a major blow to society, even if the fallout isn't immediately evident. Even assuming these powers won't be abused in short order, now that this bill has passed, more like it will appear both in Britain and abroad further reducing privacy and the free exchange of information.

First of all: Don't Care.
Second of all: They don't have the financial means to imprison millions of people.
Third of all: If they choose to charge them some huge fee to millions of people for minor infractions like watching anime there will be riots in the streets and their economy will collapse.

The government, phone companies, and every app you download gives access to all your search history and everything you do all ready. Have you ever read the fine print? Its very terrifying how much info you give away to the creators by playing Pokemon go

to put some of this in perspective the surveillance power's proposed were actually ok as long as it was targeted to certain individual's by court order and not bulk data collection, that's what open right's group were proposing when they were campaigning, unfortunately the most crucial time to speak up was during the referendum, and we voted leave so the news didn't stop talking about event's related to it so no one noticed this bill or campaigned against it till it was too late. now that it's been noticed this has happened https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/173199 and the wording is terrible because you can't repeal what is not yet a law and just because it say's the government could debate it in parliament doesn't mean they will. with all that said the worst part's of the bill are being discussed in court's, the the European court of justice (which we might leave) and the European court of human right's (which we're not leaving), and there have been many other European court hearing's that have said element's of the act are illegal, during that whole debate one court said that the uk had been illegally collecting the data of British citizen's for the last 17 year's (that came to light when snowden happened).

Guys, don't worry. Watching anime is NOT illegal because of this, the bill was designed to stop suspected cyberattackers and terrorists, not innocent anime fans.

What makes you think that? Have you seen the ridiculous list of government agencies that have access to this data? True, I'm sure anime isn't on the top of anyone's list as far as concerns but this is an unwarranted violation of privacy that serves no practical purpose except to oppress the citizenry. Government agencies that have the power to track ultra serious criminals using extra-legal measures already exist in every country. And even then, news reports and leaks have shown those agencies go too far. Giving up more and more privacy to more and more agencies in a world that is increasingly dependent on computers and the internet and just trusting nothing bad is going to happen and that it will help stop crime is not the answer.

If you are reasonably suspected of a crime, the police can obtain access to your internet history. If a web site is brought down due to participating in criminal activities, the users of the site can be tracked down and brought up on charges if needed. Those powers make sense, assuming they aren't misused. And, as mentioned above, if you are participating in a crime of a very serious nature, spooks can get on top of that with very little red tape or wait time. Most people aren't criminals. Why should every single citizen in the UK have to live without privacy while using the internet (which is increasingly how everything is done) in name of catching the small number of criminals that government agencies and the police wouldn't already catch with their existing far-reaching powers? Look at the list of agencies that have free access to this data and think hard about this question.

On top of that, the Investigatory Powers act includes much more than just revealing the browsing history of every citizen (minus government officials). This is the sort of legislation that gets passed in an authoritarian regime where citizens have no rights. It has no place in a 1st world free democracy and I wish it were getting more media coverage.